Principles of art and design: Unity and Variety

Unity and variety are two differents principles related to the same concept.

• Unity: We understand by unity the formal an pleasing to the eye grouping of the elements that make the artwork. Unity results is a closed and balanced composition.

• Variety: An artwork with variety is the one that has diversity of colours, shapes, sizes, etc.. They are no pleasing to the eye because of the dispersion of elements, the look goes from one place to another and lose interest in the artwork.

Principles of art and design: Proportion

Proportion is a principle that describe the size, location, or amount of one element to another. In art, artists use proportions for find harmony in the individual pieces.
Proportions change all over the centuries, and they depend on various factors.

 

Here we see the Doríforo of Polícleto who has the principal sculptor in the V century. He invented the so-called canon of 7 heads.

Polícleto invented this new sistem of proportions, in which he represented the perfect proportions of humans , all body parts keep a balanced relationship with all other.

Principles of art and design: Rhythm

Rhythm is the result of an organized repetition of an element or elements in an artwork. We can find three differents types of rhythm.

• Repetition 

• Alternation

• Progression

Principles of art and design: Emphasis

Emphasis is a principle of art which occurs any time an element of a piece is given dominance by the artist. In other words, the artist makes part of the work stand out, in order to draw the viewer's eye there first. Normally the author get this effects by contrast of colour, shape, texture, etc

Principles of art and design: Balance

Balance is the visual distribution of elements like colour, shapes and space. It makes the desing feel stable or not.We distinguish two types of balance:

• Symetrical balance 
• Asymmetrical balance 

In this artwork of Guillermo Pérez Peralta we can notice ecstatic and symetrical balance that gives the design a sense of stability. 

Elements of visual language: Texture

We can define texture as a perceived surface quality of a work of art. It´s an element we can find in two-dimensional and three dimensional designs.

•  Two- dimensional designs. Texture gives a visual sense of how an object would feel in real life if touched. Artist use colour, lines and shading to improve texture.
•  Three- dimensional designs. Artists use real texture that can be capture in a touch

Elements of visual language: Value

Value is defined as the relative lightness or darkness of a color. It is an important tool for the designer/artist, in the way that it defines form and creates spatial illusions. Contrast of value separates objects in space, while gradation of value suggests mass and contour of a contiguous surface.
Value can be used with colour as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values.

Elements of visual language: Colour

Colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, blue , yellow... Colour derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitives of the light receptors, if want to define a colour we have to attend to differents characteristics:

• Hue
• Value
• Intensity 

Colours can be classified into differents groups  such as: warm or cool colours, dark colours and light colours. Also we can define a colour considering its brightness or intensity.

Elements of visual language: Space

In art space has two different conceptions.

1. The feeling of depth or three dimensions created by the author, it means the illusion of space by diferents techniques.
2. The area used by the author in terms of the work.

     

In this picture we can see how the author by the illusion of space created this three dimension image. 

Elements of visual language: Shape and Form

Shape and form are elements that firstly can seem the same but they are different concepts that we have to distinguish.
When we talk about shape we are referring to objects that have 2 dimensions and are defined by lines.

 

In this workart created by Odili Donald Odita we can see that is making geometric abstractions with expressive and metaphoric power of line, colour and shape. 

However when we talk about form we talk about something that has height, width, and depth. This is the principal element use in sculpture.

This famous sculpture of Michelangelo Buonarrot created between 1513 and 1515 called Moses is housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Roma. It is a sculpture in marble and measures 235 cm

Elements of visual language: Line

A line is an identifiable path created by a point moving in space. A line is a basic and essential element in the visual representation. It is used for delimit basic spaces or to define elements in the representation. Lines can be represented in differents ways: mixed,straight,vertical,oblique,horizontal or curves.

        In this Kandinski artwork we can see how the Russian painter, precursor in abstraction in painting,               analyzes the geometric elements: point and line and make subjective effects through the line                           orientation.